Removal of the adductor muscle from scallops, also referred to as “shucking”, has typically been a manual process. A knife blade is inserted through an opening near the hinge between the two shells of a scallop and used to cut the adductor muscle from the top shell. The top shell and viscera are then pulled away from the bottom shell and discarded, and the adductor muscle is cut from the bottom shell in a second cut.
This type of manual shucking process can be quite physically demanding, and hand and wrist problems and repetitive strain injuries are common. In addition, manual shucking speed is limited to physical capability of a human worker and is often the bottleneck in a factory setting. Product quality consistency can also be an issue. Edible product yields can thus vary from person to person, both in the number of scallops processed and the amount of the adductor muscle that remains attached to the shells after shucking and therefore is wasted.